Charleston, South Carolina: Steeples, Shrimp, and a Horse Named Buttercup
Welcome to Charleston, South Carolina, the city that looks like a postcard, charges like a boutique hotel minibar, and has been on the receiving end of a roast on RoastMyTown.com. We read the burns, did the homework, and have some thoughts.
The "Holy City" Is Mostly a Humblebrag With a Steeple
Charleston's nickname, the Holy City, comes from the skyline of church steeples poking up like pins in a cushion. In other words, it started as a compliment, and the city framed it and hung it over the mantel.
The place does have the receipts to back up some smugness. If you're going to be insufferable, have a good skyline handy.
So when a local sighs at your fanny pack, remember that the fanny pack pays their mortgage.
Carriage Rides: A 3-MPH Lesson in Patience
Let's talk about Buttercup. The roast is right that Charleston tolerates horse-drawn carriages clip-clopping through the historic downtown while tourists live out their Gone with the Wind fantasies and everyone else idles behind them on King Street.
To be fair, the city has been thinking about tourism's side effects for a long time. Charleston was an early adopter of a tourism management plan, according to the city's Director of Livability and Tourism. It's now rewriting the thing. Charleston unveiled the name for its first tourism management plan in over a decade, so if you live here and have opinions about horse traffic, keep an eye out for a chance to say so.
Meanwhile, the crowds keep coming. The annual Southeastern Wildlife Exposition draws huge crowds downtown every February, and peninsula hotels fill up that weekend. Yes, that's a festival where dogs leap into pools for toys, and it's apparently a main event.
- Pastel architecture
- 10 out of 10
- King Street traffic
- 2 out of 10
- Smugness-to-steeple ratio
- 8 out of 10
- Parking downtown
- 1 out of 10
- Horse dignity
- 9 out of 10
Shrimp and Grits: Poverty Food, Now $30
Charleston loves to remind you that shrimp and grits began as a humble fishermen's breakfast. Today, chains from Atlanta to Alaska serve "authentic Charleston-style" versions with enough cream and cheese to feed a small plantation. The city turned working-class breakfast into a $30 entrée, which is either culinary heritage or a very successful rebrand.
The city does still have real food credentials. If the airport has a better grits situation than your hometown's brunch spot, that tells you something.
Transplant Takeover: Bless Your Heart, Newcomers
Here's the roast's spiciest claim: Charleston has so many transplants that the famous drawl is getting harder to find, and a good chunk of the population showed up for the Instagram opportunities. The numbers back up the "everyone's moving here" part. The city's population was 120,083 in 2010 and 150,227 in 2020. Other sources count slightly differently, but the direction is the same: up, up, up.
The median age skews young, which makes sense in a city with the College of Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina, and The Citadel all in town. Plenty of the new arrivals are young professionals chasing a Lowcountry lifestyle, and the "Holy City" gets a little less sleepy every year.
The Verdict on Charleston, SC
Charleston is gorgeous, historic, and deeply aware of both facts. You'll get the steeples, the pastel row houses, the harbor views, the shrimp and grits, and the carriage traffic as a bonus. Come for the history, stay for the food, and just accept that Buttercup has the right of way.
Think we were too nice? See the full roast on RoastMyTown.com.